Shipping companies typically charge customers for their services based on package size (i.e., volumetric weight) and/or weight (i.e., dead weight). When printing a shipping label for a package, a customer enters the size and/or weight of the package into a software application that bills the customer based on the information. Typically, customers get this size information by hand-measuring a package's dimensions (e.g., with a tape measure) and weighing the package on a scale. Hand-measurement of packages can be time-consuming and prone to errors. The customer may have difficulty positioning a tape measure on an irregularly-shaped package, for example. Alternatively, the customer may have difficulty reading a tape measure or may misread or erroneously record the dimension measurement. Problematically for the customer, when the shipping company later determines that the package is larger and/or heavier than reported by the customer, the shipping company may issue an additional charge to the customer. Additional bills may reduce customer satisfaction with the shipping experience, and, if the shipping customer is a retail company that has already passed along the shipping cost to an end customer, decrease the customer's earnings.
As such, a commercial need exists for systems that accurately and speedily collect a package's dimensions (e.g., length, width, height) for integration with billing systems to reduce errors in obtaining and transcribing that dimensional data.